Sunday, August 28, 2011

Slackerly updates!

Well, the first Carmine Rojas novella is almost done!! And thanks to Dragon Nat. Speaking it's almost typed too!

So it will be off to Damnation Books http://www.damnationbooks.com/ sooner rather than later. Of course I did the math and I've writing this thing for months!! It's going to get to about 19k which is well within the average for other Damnation novellas. I also need to work up a marketing plan! I had a moment of panic when I saw that on the submission guidelines but I got some help from Sunny Frazier over at Oak Tree who sent me the form they have their authors fill out and it gave me some good ideas for what I can do!

I'm luck to be in a position, and have the skill, to manufacture my own swag :) I can make Carmine book marks, Carmine prints, and, if I ever buy another cyan toner cartridge for my laser printer, Carmine stickers! I can also attend cons if they are in Cali and promote on LJ and Deviant Art. So maybe I'm not hopeless!


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Accidentally, a new book...

On the heels of finishing Tea Times Three I've started a new book.

And it's funny because I just read a blog post by someone I follow http://teaandbiscuits42.blogspot.com/2011/08/wip-madness.html who has also started a new WIP. She asks some good questions at the end of her blog which boils down to "How do you feel when starting a new WIP?"

I, unlike the original poster, don't feel nervous. I spent a year and a half living in Midswich Maine with all the residents of my fictional town, and as much ad I love them I am happy to take a break. There is a Buddhist saying which goes something like this, "Everyone is special, but no one is especially special."

A lot of authors seem to get very attached to a particular caste but I don't. I certainly like everyone in Tea Times Three, enough that I have two more books planned, but I also have a lot of other ideas with lots of other characters, some planned, and some I'm just making up ad I go.

The new WIP I plunged into, head first when a couple ideas I've had in the back of my mind collided and an idea sprang forth. I started writing without even the main character's names in place. Heck, her personality wasn't even formed yet. But I'm learning all about her as I write and I've honed her personality. I have a few things to change at the beginning, but the book, the world, and the characters are taking shape as I go. I mean the main character's name has changed three times!!

To me that's the only way to get to know a story. Write it. The characters will surprise and delight you! If you have a book or a an unfinished work by the end it doesn't matter, you've still learned, and practiced and written something. And by sheer practice the next work will be better still.

I do worry at times I'm waisting m,y time. I worry I won't finish. I worry my ideas are dumb. BUT I don't let it stop me. Every new book gets off to a joyous and exciting start! Whether it stays that way seems to be my biggest hurdle. The inevitable mid-book blues set in. I get stuck, I start to worry. I start to doubt. THAT'S when In start to freak. Not at the beginning. I hit the ground running, then slow, then trip, then pick myself up THEN hopefully, stagger across the finish line, only to have to rewrite and edit.


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Done!

Done!!! Huzzah! Draft 1 of Tea Times Three is done! Sort of... I still need to fill in the middle but I'm working on rewrites! And the first Carmine novella is closing in on done! Yay!

Productivity is good!